January 2012

MUMBAI, INDIA – In back-to-back rescue operations this week, IJM helped local police to rescue several girls from their suspected traffickers.

First, IJM Mumbai received intelligence of a potential trafficking case: A mother was desperate to save her daughter, anxious that she had been trafficked to a town a few hours away.

Tonight, President Obama delivers his 2012 State of the Union address to our nation. As the President communicates his priorities for the coming year, will you join us in asking him to add one more?

IJM is calling on 27,000 Americans to urge President Obama to help end slavery once and for all.

Experts estimate that there are 27 million children, women and men held in slavery today.

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA – Late last week, IJM worked with police to rescue young women who were trapped in a brothel. IJM investigators discovered and documented evidence of the abuse that was occurring in the brothel, located in a popular tourist destination notorious for trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of underage girls.

The brothel owner controlled the girls with intense fear tactics. In an apparent attempt to cover her own crimes, she told the girls that the police would arrest them and that they should hide if law enforcement ever came to the brothel.

KIGALI, RWANDA – A Rwandan judge sentenced a local businessman to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting a two-year-old girl. In addition to facing jail time for criminal charges, the perpetrator must pay fines for civil damages that were levied against him at the same time.

The judgment was delivered in late December 2011, marking IJM Rwanda’s fourth conviction of the year in IJM-supported cases against perpetrators of sexual violence.